Hello all,
Below are problems I have dealt with personally, and my proposed solutions:
1st, there is no real competition by insurance companies. Try to purchase insurance as an individual or small business - it's a nightmare. You can't see the rates, you can't understand the plans, and you never know for sure exactly what's covered.
So I propose a few things:
a: the fed create standards by which all policies must conform. This could be done by the new consumer protection board that will also regulate credit cards and mortgages, or an independent entity. This would ensure consumers that they will be receiving high quality insurance. It would also require companies to hew to coverage guidelines (no exceptions). A complaint system, outside the courts, would deal with any charges of malfeasance. There should be no such thing as "underinsured" anymore.
b: no more variable rates depending on your employer's negotiating power, etc. Companies would have to offer one rate, state-wide, regardless of whether the person is employed by a corporation or is purchasing the plan as an individual (I'm not suggesting one rate for all companies, just that each company decide on a rate, publish it, and allow consumers/employees to decide if that's a rate they want to pay or to purchase their insurance from someone else).
c: electronic, industry-wide standardized records. State to state, doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital, etc. This would accomplish not only better care, but a LOG of care, so any denial of care would be easy to reference, PLUS no more going to innumerable redundant xrays, blood tests, etc.
d: each state must set up (or pay the feds to set up for them if done improperly) a website listing the plans offered by insurance companies and the rates, along with clear explainations of deductibles. If you've seen a mortgage rate chart where they list the rates along with points, it could be done that easily.
e: create anti-trust provisions that determine what a competitive market is. If a state only has a few (or worse, a couple) of insurance companies the state MUST find a way to make the market more competitive or lose federal medicare dollars.
f: all health insurance payments (not including copayments) must be tax free. If employees get their health care tax free, everyone should, especially since as an individual you get no corporate benefits department to help or any other perks. Any individual who cannot get coverage through his/her job
g: I believe insurance companies should provide malpractice insurance. This would ensure the doctors in their networks are high quality, and the company would then have superior rate negotiating power with the malpractice insurance companies to lower rates, since they would have pools of doctors rather than each doctor paying individually.
h: coverage would be mandatory. For lower income people the fed could issue cards, similar to the cards used for food stamps, that carry a balance for what the lowest cost insurance available is, and that card could be used for payment. This would be better than a tax break since low income people may not have the capital available to sustain coverage until tax refunds are issued.
I believe if insurance companies were truly competing for our business our capitalist model would work, but the current system is not competitive at all - it's a racket, and insurance companies have been gouging consumers and companies the same way the financial sector misbehaved and made immense profits at the expense of all of us. With real, meaningful oversight and competition the health sector could be vibrant as companies tried to lower costs by offering competing models for prevention, overall health, and better, more concerned care for consumers.
I would say compare the cellphone industry to the cable tv providers. Where I live there are many cellular phone providers who compete vociferously with new products, new pricing, etc, while the cable companies have been raising prices (in NYC there are effectively 2 cable companies - time warner and cablevision - they even share a website and have identical pricing. The only other providers are dish network which is useless to most residents because building owners don't allow dishes on the roof. Comcast, Verizon, etc. aren't even in the market here).
The KEY though is to maintain standards - companies could lower rates by being more efficient, cutting administrative costs, reducing paper-pushers through electronic records, etc., but NOT through denial of service, since we all know Republicans are dead-set against "rationing". Otherwise the patient, once again, will be the one paying the price.
Comments (8)
SO BO THINKS HE HAS FOUND A WAY TO BRIBE AMERICANS INTO ACCEPTING HIS SOCIALIST NATIONAL HEALTH CARE WITH DRUGS - Here is the trick "The House health reform discussion draft includes a straightforward provision to close the ‘donut hole’ over time". Did you catch that? "over time" It is ever so deceptive like all BO & Pelosi's DSA Socialist legislation. They are not going to close the so called donut hole drug provision with the Socialist National Health Care, not in 2009, 2010 but "over time" could be over the next 10 years - WHAT GOOD IS THAT GOING TO DO SENIORS & AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES? BO & Pelosi legislation is as slippery as snakes. They make you think they are promising a good thing but they got a loophole in the legislation so they don't have to deliver for years, by that time they are betting on being long gone or you will forget all about what they promised. Another example of DIRTY, ROTTEN, CRIMINAL, CHICAGO, MOBSTER POLITICS!! DON'T FALL FOR IT SENIORS - DON'T FALL FOR IT AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES - NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IS SOCIALIST MEDICINE ANYWAY YOU WRAP IT AND SOCIALISM DOES NOT CARE ABOUT SENIORS NOR THOSE WITH DISABILITIES. JUST TAKE A LOOK AT RUSSIA, CUBA, N. KOREA, CHINA OR ANY 3RD WORLD COUNTRY. SOCIALISM IS NEVER NEVER NEVER GOOD!!!! EXCEPT FOR THE FEW ELITE ARISTOCRATS AT THE TOP.
Earlier today, President Obama joined key lawmakers and health care stakeholders in announcing an agreement to help reduce out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors and people with disabilities enrolled in Medicare. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) and Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark (D-CA) issued the following statements in response:
“I welcome this announcement and am pleased to hear that the Members and stakeholders involved share our commitment to addressing the prescription drug ‘donut hole,’ which currently forces millions of seniors and people with disabilities to pay thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses for their medications,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles "CROOK" Rangel (D-NY). “The House health reform discussion draft includes a straightforward provision to close the ‘donut hole’ over time. I look forward to working with the Administration, the Senate, and stakeholders to ensure affordable prescription drugs for all under Medicare.”
“The ‘donut hole’ has been a problem since Part D was created, and we have developed an enforceable solution to ensure that all seniors and people with disabilities are no longer forced to foot the entire bill for drugs that should be covered under Medicare,” said Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark (D-CA). “Today’s announcement brings key stakeholders to the table, and I am hopeful that we can work together to achieve the goal of guaranteeing coverage in the ‘donut hole.’" "NO" FOR BO'S SOCIALIST NATIONAL HEALTH CARE
the free market approach to health care treats health care as a market commodity and not as the constitutional human right that it should be. as a market good, health care is by definition exclusionary, sold only to those who can pay, and readily exhaustible, depleted by private interests that literally "take their cut" from available resources through profit, leaving less for the public at large.
the goal of a healthy society is at the core of human rights principles which places a duty on government to protect everyone's health. a society disposed to treat health care as a human right needs to protect the physical and financial provisions of health care on a guaranteed and sustainable basis. in such a society, health care is treated as a public good, rather than a commodity sold in the market place dominated by private interests.
while your proposal has merit, it is primarily driven by a sense of economic necessity, based on cost concerns. while i am sure you share a common understanding of health as a social goal, your proposal falls short in assuming that the social and financial goals of health care as a human right can be realized as by-products of fragmented, market based services.
until we have the attitude: health care is a constitutional and human right we will not go far enough in preserving the very system by which we receive health care. to let others "sell" us or profit from the sale of our human rights is ludicrous. it is time we stop this ridiculous nonsense that is killing tens of thousands of americans each year, bankrupting tens of thousands more, and ruining our entire economy. we don't need a market driven approach to health care. you have to ask yourself: what is more important, health care as a human right or preserving the free market in the area of health care?
Thanks for your thoughtful post.
sallietoo's comment is not responding to the original post (thread hijacking). Flagged as spam.
sallietoo
Member since : Jun-03-2009 (Verified)
0 Ideas, 97 Comments, 131 Votes
To recap: 0 ideas, but 97 comments.
Not what this site is for sallietoo; create a blog and use as many CAPITAL LETTERS as you like, but this is supposed to be a place for ideas and comments that directly correspond to those ideas.
You very welcome, getting the TRUTH out to Americans about what is really going on in our government is an exhausting job due to criminally irresponsible, unaccountable, wasteful & reckless legislature slanted towards DSA Socialism of absolute government control and the mainstream media's failure to report the TRUTH and instead reporting slanted PROPANGANDA only in favor of Obama i.e. ABC campaigning for Socialist National Health Care, NBC/MSNBC owned by GE CEO Jeffery Immelt who has received millions & millions from ALL of OBama's legislature (Bail Out, Stimulus Bill, Omnibus Bill, proposed Budget Bill, proposed National Health Care Bill, proposed Cap & Trade) as well as holding a position in Obama's Administration on the Stimulus Bill's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which means Immelt is in the position to funnel federal taxpayer Stimulus dollars to GE, NCB/MSNBC & himself - A HUGE CONFLICT OF INTEREST. I don't have the goods on CBS & CNN but I assume they too are in bed with Obama. With over 80 (DSA) Democrat Socialists of America members in Congress with ringleaders Pelosi, Frank, Waxman, Stark, Rangel, Walters, Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Defazio, McDermott, Abercrombie, Mckinney as well as more than a dozen in the CA legislature, which has greatly attributed to California's budget/spending problems as well as the DSA stand on Amnesty, sanctuary cities and endless entitlements to illegals. God knows how many DSA members are in the Obama Administration and in State government of 50 states nationwide. THE DSA HAS LITERALLY HIJACKED THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, OUR CONGRESS & LEGISLATURE BRANCH OF OUR GOVERNMENT, OBAMA'S ADMINISTRATION & THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF OUR GOVERNMENT WITH OVER 21 CZARS, AS WELL AS OUR JUDICIAL BRANCH OF OUR GOVERNMENT. IN OVER A HALF DOZEN LAWSUITS NATIONWIDE REGARDING OBAMA'S ILLEGIBILITY TO BE PRESIDENT DUE TO LACK OF CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS i.e. proof of natural born citizenship & proof of citizenship to only one country NOT ONE JUDGE (SUPERIOR OR SUPREME) WILL HEAR THE CASE WITHOUT DISMISSING IT. THIS LIE, DECEPTION AND COVER UP HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE OBAMA'S 1ST SENATE RUN WHERE HE WAS ENDORSED BY THE DSA. THE FREE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN HAS BEEN HIJACKED BY THE DSA SOCIALISTS WHO ARE RAPIDLY DESTROYING AND DAILY VIOLATING OUR CONSTITUTION, OUR FREEDOMS & CHOICES, OUR FREE MARKET ECONOMY, OUR TRADITIONS (both Military & society), OUR BELIEFS, OUR WAY OF LIFE. THIS IS NOT RUSSIA AND AMERICANS DO NOT EMBRACE MARX, LENIN NOR ALINSKY IDEOLOGY. AMERICANS DO NOT WANT CZARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE NOR EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF OUR GOVERNMENT. AMERICANS DO NOT WANT A GOVERNMENT BASED ON SOCIALISM POLICIES, AGENDA NOR IDEOLOGY. THE U.S.A. IS A FREE REPUBLIC AND CANNOT EXIST WITH A SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT. THE DSA MEMBERS IN OUR STATE & FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS MUST CEASE AND DESIST WITH ALL SOCIALIST POLICES, LEGISLATION, AGENDA AND IDEOLOGIES AND DSA MEMBERS WILL NOT BE RE ELECTED IN 2010 & 2012.
jmkliam THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS SITE IS FOR! COMMENTS DIRECTLY CORRESPONDING THE THE IDEA OF SOCIALIST NATIONAL HEALTH AND OTHER SOCIALIST POLICIES, LEGISLATION, AGENDA & IDEOLOGY. You might not like it, I sure don't. You might not want to believe it, I sure wish it was not true. THE DSA DEMOCRAT SOCIALIST OF AMERICA HAS HIJACKED THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, OUR CONGRESS & LEGISLATURE BRANCH OF OUR GOVERNMENT, OUR ADMINISTRATION & EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF OUR GOVERNMENT, OUR JUDICIAL BRANCH OF OUR GOVERNMENT CREATING AN OLIGARCHY RAN BY AN USURPER. Do the research and you will come to the same conclusion.
Sallie too ,, +10